Noone's going to jump in on this one? Well, leave it to the local family man...

I suppose I'm as big a fan of the Harry Potter books as anyone else--as I'm fond of saying, I'd be reading them even if I didn't have children to read them aloud to. These rank right up there with the Oz books, the Narnia books and the other family classics (and you can trust that I know them all). In short, I'm not going to be put off by something just because it's a "must-see" phenomenon that a lot of people are going to get sick of hearing about--and this movie is as close to a perfect adaptation of the first book as possible.

Okay, I was annoyed that Rik Mayall's part (Peeves the Poltergeist) hit the cutting room floor. But I got over it. We still get Richard Harris, Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman, John Cleese, a PERFECTLY cast Robbie Coltrane and a fine bunch of newcomers in the lead roles.

Sets, effects--wonderful and beyond reproach. Intensity NOT watered-down to protect our innocent youth. The Quidditch match beats the "Episode One" pod-race hands down. This adds up to two-and-a-half captivating hours whether you're nine, nineteen or ninety... and I feel sorry for the critics who couldn't find it in themselves to enjoy it. If you liked the books, see the movie--if you didn't like them, fair enough. But please don't knock them without trying them. Can't wait for the next book--can't wait for the next movie!

------------------"Nya-nya, nya-nya, nyahh-nyahh... I made you eat your parents!!!" --Cartman

I'm comfortable enough with myself to say that I've read the first book in the series. I loved it. Thought it was great! It's painfully original and has a very rich story that can be enjoyed by just about anyone. In my opinion it's as important to literary fantasy as Lord of the Rings.

I liked the movie a lot. It was a perfect adaptation. But for all it's merits, it had an equal number of flaws (that I don't think Columbus could have done anything about). The movie is pushing 3 hours so they had to leave a ton out of the movie. My biggest complaint was that the relationships in the movie seemed very thin. Because we're racing through this movie (they covered the first quarter of the book in 10 minutes time) they had to dump a ton of it and since most of the kids seeing this movie have probably read all the books several times over, it's really not that big of a deal. This was the same problem that killed Hannibal for me. In an attempt to stay faithful to the source material, a lot of character development is left out. I wonder what someone who hadn't read the books thought of it.

The rest of my gripes were in the special effects department. Some of the effects were fantastic! But a good deal of them were on par with The Mummy Returns. Hands down, the quiddich match rocked the world. Better than the pod race (it actually reminded me more of the speeder bike chase from Jedi).

They also ran a good deal of trailers before the movie, some of them really cool, some of them absolute suck. Top of the list was the newest Lord of the Rings trailer. I have no doubt in my mind that Fellowship of the Ring is going to rock. There's just no way, based on the footage I've seen that it can even remotely suck. The Majestic also ran, good looking movie. Episode 2's trailer left me feeling very empty inside. The teaser was by far cooler. At the bottom of the list was the Scooby Doo teaser. It got me amped thinking I was finally going to get a look at Aronofsky's Batman footage... I was so incredibly pissed when I saw the results.

I'm pretty much staying away from this one (at least until it comes out on video). I was never into the whole Harry Potter phenomenom and the hype is just too overbearing for a movie that never interested me in the first place. The only reason I cared to see it was because of the Episode 2 trailer. But I saw it for free on starwars.com so why go to HARRY POTTER now? I'll wait and go see LORD OF THE RINGS instead.

On a side note...I'll have to kindly disagree with you Latte on the Episode 2 trailer. I thought it was great. Okay some of the romantic dialogue seemed really dopey, but the second half was intriguing. Indeed this installment looks like it will be a big improvement over PHANTOM MENACE. I can't wait to see it. I still haven't gotten around to viewing the special "Mystery" trailer yet that's only available to PHANTOM MENACE DVD owners, but I will someday.

"I have existed from the morning of the world and I shall exist until the last star falls from the heavens. Although I have taken the form of Gaius Caligula, I am all men as I am no man and so... I am a God." - Malcolm McDowell, CALIGULA
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